Chapter 15
No Mas
Jitters.
I feel my entire body start to jitter from lack of sleep. Well lack of prolonged sleep. This is day three and I am circling around in a giant war blimp over the Legrand city of Kystav. At least that is what the minds I am reading tell me our current location is.
Where am I? Someplace dark that is not easily noticeable to anyone skilled in tracking people’s movements on streams. To be even more vague I switch my location quite often going from the actual helium filled blimps, to compact and sealed storage closets, to empty rooms on the grand estate of a constantly moving blimp. The idea being that an airship in motion is nearly impossible for a crew to search through and re-search over and over again.
“She is in an airship. The only problem is that there are dozens of airships in the air at any time.”
This is the fun part, constantly harassing people and moving about from location to location. Every once in a while I try to take a hidden nook that is particularly hard to get at, where I then promptly pass out and go to sleep.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
An alert goes off in my mind, letting me know that I have been resting in one spot for too long. I am now at the point where I need to move every two hours.
Poof.
“There it is teleportation magic.” A Mana Tracker states, I can tell from how loud the thought is and how it is being repeated by other minds in a wide radius. “They have gone to the starboard section of the ship.”
Breathing out, I let out a sign. While they cannot stop me from teleporting, I can be tracked by my energy leakage.
The last skill I got for the last 24 hours helped me avoid both Beastkin and tracking animals.
New skill Gained: Scentless Passage has reached level 1. Scentless Passage is a Personality, Sociability, and Perception based skill.
I didn’t quite know how that was a mostly social skill, but I’ll take it. I guess it mostly dealt with the way others perceived me, which likely meant I would no longer stink once I got the skill high enough. This was of course great, but ultimately not helpful in my current situation.
Still being forced to move around every two hours is getting taxing. Worse, I now can tell that this quest has been scaled. At first apparently only people my level to level 10 were allowed to have access to the quest. From there it went up to people who were level 20. With this latest one it is people who are thirty levels above my own. This is why I am now being identified by trackers who can tell my magical signatures while just flashing from one part of a ship to another.
I should probably move, but there is a cat and mouse movement to this. As I mentioned before we are currently in a holding pattern over Kystav, why this is important? The ship I am on was originally meant to be a passenger liner that went straight from Kystav city in Legrand, to Spade City in Maltese.
Why is this important?
To be honest I was tired. I had two decent skills that are unique quality or rarer as rewards and that was more than enough for me. I was more than willing to use this ship to get me to the Maltese empire where this ever-increasing manhunt would eventually die down.
Yet, I was found out. Mainly due to these Trackers who can find magical frequencies easy. My Latens Manifesta or mage specific hiding skill should help me hide while wearing my magical items. The only problem is that now I am getting to the point where people have different skills used specifically for tracking people like me, rather people who use magic to evade normal detections.
It is fun, and likely something that I would be more interested in doing if I wasn’t so tired, but again this is a marathon of an activity.
“I cannot smell anything.” A snarling worker says as they pass by.
Of course, the reason the beastkin player can’t smell me is because I have been leveling up my Scentless Tracking almost constantly over the past day. Well almost a day. Still, I am now just waiting in a hold pattern. Both literally and figuratively.
Literally I am in a holding pattern over Kystav, and figuratively I am in a holding pattern hoping that I get a new skill that will make my next plan all the easier to pull off.
What is my next goal? Well get off this ship for one. But there are more components to this. More things to worry about.
Kystav is a smaller city, though in this case size is relative. Kystav is roughly the same size as the Maltese capital of Wonderly. But since this is a smaller city for Legrand, even though it houses easily more than two million people, it only has two guild halls. Well two guild halls on the surface, a mage’s guild and the Apothecary guild. Why is this important? Well simple, I am working on planning my perfect heist.
Fortunately all guilds have roughly the same layout, and the same form of restricted section. Which hopefully means they have similar levels of protections in place that can be mapped out and planned for. Unfortunately, my theory is quickly negated when I realize that the layout of these guilds are completely different from both the Apothecary and Mage’s guild in Wonderly. At least their architecture and design are different from the ones I am used to. This is good as it means I will likely need to scale different heists for different locations.
Rustle. Clatter. Bang.
I hear rustling nearby and decide to move once more.
Poof.
Whoosh.
I feel the wind blowing through my hair and find myself outside the blimp on its main support balloon. I know people are already moving to try to cut me off, but even on a ship, there are still only so many locations I can logistically hide before I am ultimately found. Also with higher and higher level players allowed to come after me, the more unique skills, powers, or items I have to prepare for in order to make my getaway.
Zoomm.
The all too familiar scream of biplanes screaming through the air can be heard. I know this is most likely due to communications between the magic trackers inside the ship informing the support pilots outside the blimp of my current location. The reason I know this is the case as there is a time delay between the video feed and the time it is aired. Premium channel viewers get the feeds up to 15 minutes earlier, which still imposes a 15 minute delay, versus the 30 minute delay normally experienced by regular viewers.
So the fact that these people are reacting in a near instantaneous fashion implies that they are communicating in some way.
Now I know what you are thinking if I can teleport onto a blimp, why not a biplane. I will tell you the truth, biplanes are much faster and harder to predict. When I just I need to predict where I want to be or land. This is a process that is a lot easier for a relatively slower moving object that is much larger to hit, like a blimp, than say a tiny biplane that just by landing on the plane I could be hit by sudden wind resistance and thrown right off the plane. While a blimp gives me a bit more room to gain my footing, and again the fact that it goes a lot slower is a huge plus in my book.
New Skill Gained: Concealed Mana has increased to level 1. Concealed Mana is an Endurance, Intelligence, and Willpower based skill.
At that, I realize I likely have already received my reward for completing yet another day of the impossible mission. Then sure enough I am hit with the next phase of the mission.
Impromptu Quest: Manhunt (IV): A Regional Quest has been updated for you. Your Goal: avoid capture for a period of 24 hours to earn a medium reward. Conditions: You cannot leave the Legrand Empire during this time. You must remain on the run once every one hour from pursuers.
Seeing that, I realize this is going to get ridiculous. I need to move around every hour, meaning no chance for sleep. Then I need avoid capture by people up to level 50.
With all of those contingencies, I decide to call it a day.
I have had my fun, almost too much of it. My hands and body are still jittering from a lack of proper sleep and I still need to get away, if I am going to make it out. This is why I have been planning my contingency escape plan.
Ratta-tak-tak.
Enemy planes are opening fire on their own ships. Hearing that, this is even more reason to go to plan A.
Poof.
There is a white-hot burning sensation on my legs and ankles. With a start I collapse to the ground and instantly feel warm stinging blood pooling away from me.
Then to make matters even more interesting I receive a notification I guess I should have expected.
You are in the restricted section of the Mage’s Guild. Should you be found your status within the Mage’s guild will be revoked.
And like that, I realize my plan for escape just got a lot worse, as I am now bleeding evidence of my misconduct everywhere. Still, I figure if I am caught, I am caught. Physically grabbing a book, I jump to a hidden closet that looks to be an old shower room and start reading.
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Poof.
Within forty-five minutes my legs have healed enough to not pour blood everywhere. I could of course use this time to leave, but I decide not to. Even when I get the annoying notifications.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Even with the warning, I decide not to move.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Quest Failure Immanent.
I let the feeling of being flustered rush over me, then let it fall. I guess I am in a dark enough spot that it is not easy to identify my location. Even from people like the Tracker who might have tracked my activities would have a hard time finding my mana signature in the middle of all of these other signatures. Still, I’ve only made it the first hour of this fifth phase of the mission.
Finally, after a long time and a few more warnings, I get the notification I had been searching for.
Impromptu Quest FAILED: Manhunt (IV): A Regional Quest has been updated for you. Your Goal: of avoiding capture while moving every hour has failed. Due to your not being captured during the allotted time period, your status as a fugitive will degrade at the rate of one level per day spent on the run. Current ranking lowered by one tier from IV to III.
Seeing the notice, I let out a huge sigh of relief. While I can still be found and will be offered a reward for my capture, my status will no longer increase. Also now I can have the benefit of finding a nice hiding hole and just staying put.
The book I have taken is a lightly glowing book, which to me implies that it will offer a skill.
Focus on your circulating blood. This will be the easiest way to visualize the movement of your internal energy flow.
I read the book, which is an offshoot of what has to be old elven. A language that I also had to learn from reading semi-restricted books. Though these were books I got from the Thieves Guild as a means to improve my Polyglot skill. Still, I take my time reading through the book, making sure to perform the tasks as described. Then finally after reading and then rereading the book I am met with a somewhat appreciated message.
New Skill Gained: Mana Circulation has increased to level 1. Mana Circulation is a Strength, Endurance, Perception, and Willpower based skill.
Oddly enough, after reading the bonuses for the skill I realize that the skill is not what I expected at all. Rather than it being a way to regenerate mana, which it sort of does. The real benefit of the skill is to infuse your body with energy from your own mana pool.
Basically it was a minor form of regeneration, and if your mana was full, which mine would constantly be until my magic schools became unlocked, you could use the excess mana being generated as a form of cheap energy.
This was a good skill to have, and one that I knew would likely pay off over time. For now, it just filled my already overtaxed body with jitters. But I could see the potential of this skill so I decided to keep going.
Not only did the book detail the form of Mana Circulation, but it also had a few more practical examples of things I could do while casting spells. Ways to use my body to create the gesture needed to cast a particular spell. Yes, this was one of those worlds where gestures were needed to cast spells. Words could be avoided, but they often added a damage and accuracy modifier to the spell. Damage was increased the louder you spoke the spell, while the accuracy modifier related to how close to the real pronunciation of the spell you were. Needless to say those two modifiers meant there were a lot of low level wizards screaming Fireball everywhere. Additionally, the gestures were needed to balance out game mechanics. Just as the barrel of a gun needed to be pointed at an enemy, so too did your hands need to point to an enemy as well. In a way it made sense, also lets face it Force Choking someone to death didn’t have as much of a impact without holding out a cupped hand at an intended target.
In all I ended up reading two more books on that first day.
I like to think that there are two types of people in the world, those that can spend a few days contentedly reading book after book all day and those that can’t. I fortunately fall in the former category, especially when I know the alternative is to go out into the streets and potentially be captured by vigilante groups wishing to make a name for the capture of a known fugitive.
From the closet I found a rag and when I went to return the book I borrowed, I made sure to clean up the residual blood as best I could. Of course, trying to clean a stain while blind is a challenge in and of itself. Still, I think I did a moderately good job. I cleaned the spot until the residual energy was gone. Then I got a second cloth cleaned again. Then I proceeded to burn both in the Mage’s laboratory area.
Everything was going well. I even managed to move about is such a way as to avoid having to cross paths with anyone. Which was why it was odd for me to suddenly feel a slight burning sensation from within my bones.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 25 points of damage.
I paused, wondering if I had just killed myself by burning my rags, but those were discarded a while ago and no remains existed, I even used Telekinesis to burn the ashes. And during that entire time, I didn’t recall any such burning sensation, which was why this was odd.
Just as I was able to take a breath, I felt a second jolt of pain course through me. This time it was even worse than the first.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 50 points of damage.
Panicking I mentally shifted my consciousness everywhere, only to realize someone was in the closet I had hidden in, when I first began reading.
“STOP!” I mentally shouted in the person’s mind.
That shout did two things, first it gave me the slight reprieve that I had wanted, as the mage who had been boiling my blood through sympathetic magic.
“What? You are still alive?” The mage thought coldly. “Oh well, I was wondering why my skill was going up so quickly. Who would have thought that having a living test subject would make the skill increase each time.”
Then with that, I feel even more pain coursing through my body, as I am once again hit with a surge of pain.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 50 points of damage.
To put it in perspective, our total number of health points are equal to roughly ten times our Endurance, which currently puts me at around a maximum of 600 health points. Or rather 475 after these recent attacks, minus the damage I was still suffering from my wounds suffered from the random strafing. I still don’t know if that attack caused the zeppelin, I had been hiding on to crash or not. I assume it did, but that is a minor thing right now. This is blood magic, a forbidden art. Worse, unlike most schools of magics sympathetic blood magic has no range limit, meaning that even if I wanted to flee the area, I would only make it so this schmuck could target me from a distance without any worry of reprisals.
New Skill Gained: Blood Magic Resistance has increased to Level 1. Blood Magic Resistance is an Endurance and Willpower based skill.
See silver lining. If I let this guy burn enough of my blood away, I might gain a new point in Endurance and Willpower. Yeah, not going to happen.
For a second, I seriously reconsider my stance on killing. I mean if I was to kill anyone it would be a Blood mage right?
I contemplate this for just a second, before I decide no, maybe maiming someone would be just enough.
Focusing on the mind of the individual, I mentally grab hold of their body with a Telekinetic grip. Then slam them.
At least that is the intention.
“Oh, you are adept at Telekinesis, how interesting.” The blood mage says as I feel even more of my blood get burned away.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 49 points of damage.
Whimper.
I let out a small, choked sob as I bite my lip and all but collapse to the ground in pain.
Still, I am not done. I realize I can’t seem to move the mage, but that won’t stop me from moving an object into the mage.
Mentally I feel around the small closet and find an old shelf up high. Grabbing the shelf I slam down, and then mentally hurl the books and other items down on the caster.
“Ah! Fuck.” The Caster exclaims mentally, as they grab their head in an obvious sign of pain.
That’s when I have an idea.
He wants to burn blood fine; I just need to make sure his blood is right there with my own.
Focusing on the items I grab as many as I can and begin whirling them about violently. Everything from spinning books, to a random frying pan, to two ends of a broken mop. Everything is fair game and I slash it all about violently in the small confines of the room.
In all, it’s not much and mostly ends as soon as my flying objects get close to the caster, but it is enough.
“I am bleeding. That bitch.” The blood mage thinks, as they grab at multiple laceration points on their body. Fortunately, there are now more holes than he has hands. Blood flows freely from him. I can almost even see the way his blood mixes with my own.
“You think this will stop me?” He mentally screams, nearly delirious with pain.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 48 points of damage.
I feel my health plummet again, this time he too has a bit of his own blood in the mix.
“You think this is enough to stop me? The great Galanthir.”
“Whoa there. Just calm down. We are looking at the same damage now.” I plead.
“No, I cannot stop. She knows who I am. Besides killing someone is required to reach the next tier in Blood Magic, this is a fortuitous encounter.” The mage says.
I don’t know if this is scripted illogic from the game, or if learning Blood magic legitimately does this to even a sane individual. Regardless, the guy doesn’t stop.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 47 points of damage.
I am now down to roughly 331 health points, or just over half of my life. Still this is pain like I never imagined. I want to move, to run somewhere, but before I can I am hit with yet more thoughts, and more pain.
“This will hurt her as much if not more than me. I must keep going, I must purge her from existence, lest she tell others of my treachery.” The mage thinks.
“Look dude, we are cool. I don’t know you. We can go our own separate ways…” I begin, but I am cut off.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 46 points of damage.
On the bright side I can tell that with each casting my Blood Magic Resistance skill is going up, a testament to the fact that the damage I take each time is going down. Of course this is all minor in comparison to the fact that I am a much lower level than this jerk and likely have a lot lower Endurance than the guy. Well 60 is fairly high, oh it just went up to 61 from all my resistances, nice. That means ten more health points, at least that is the general rule of thumb.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 45 points of damage.
I am on the ground, in a ball the pain is excruciating as I can feel every fiber of my being burning away from the inside. I am now down to just over a third of my health.
“That must be it. She has to be dead.” The deranged Blood Mage thinks.
“Are you deranged? Do you have to huff paint chips to become a Blood Mage or something Galanthir?”
“It lives, worse it knows my name. I must continue to purge the monster.”
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 44 points of damage.
There is an intense ringing in my ears as I feel the blood in my body slowly boiling away.
“You know you suck right?” I mentally think to the monster.
“It still lives.” The mage is in a lot of pain just like me. They too have collapsed to the ground, but they seem insistent to continue.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 43 points of damage.
“You better really hope you are dead…” I think to the monster.
“Die.” Galanthir states.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 42 points of damage.
“That all you got?” I mentally think, spite being the only reason I am still even able to focus at this point. Mentally I calculate my health to be at roughly 121, that is assuming I started off at full health and with the ten extra points of Endurance I gained from Endurance increasing to 61.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 41 points of damage.
I am now down to 80 health at most. Still, I find the mind of the monster still there, still twitching in pain.
“What, you going to call it over now? You were so close to your goal.”
“Grr!” The monster growls, yes growls. They have gone so far down that they can only think in guttural sounds, but somehow they are still able to focus enough to cause yet another bout of pain for the both of us.
Boiling Blood you have taken sympathetic damage to your blood for 40 points of damage.
I really hope they are hurting themselves as much as they are hurting me, otherwise this will be my last.
“Yo, dork. That it? That the best you got?” I mentally think, only to feel a slight shock when I realize nothing is there on the other side. The mind I had been conversing with was gone.
Yeah, eat it jerk. I mentally think to myself. Then with my last conscious thought, I find another empty storage closet and teleport into there, before collapsing entirely.
Clatter, clink, plop.
I hear a few items drop and fall directly on me, but that is okay. I am safe, in a dark spot that no one can find me immediately and now that I am out of combat I know my Regeneration will begin to work properly again. With that thought, I feel a wave of relief take me as some of the blood that had been burned away suddenly grows back. At least that is what I associated with that soothing sensation in my stomach. Relaxing a little, I let out a long sigh of relief and let darkness take me.
Darkness.